For Drug Crazed Grindfreaks Only….

I was perusing a few differents websites today while I’m waiting to go see X-Men: The Last Stand (hopefully it doesn’t suck as bad as some of the reviews says it does) and I found this little gem on Blabbermouth.net.

Influential extreme metallers BRUTAL TRUTH have reunited to record a song for an upcoming EYEHATEGOD tribute album, with the possibility of some live appearances to follow. BRUTAL TRUTH bassist Danny Lilker (also of NUCLEAR ASSAULT and ANTHRAX fame) has commented on the band’s plans in the latest installment of his regular column in the U.K.’s Zero Tolerance magazine, which is reprinted (with kind permission from Zero Tolerance) below:

“Hi everybody. Well, it would seem that for the first time, the name of this column will finally have some modern relevance. Here’s what’s going on.

“You’ve heard about how catastrophic Hurricane Katrina was. Well, I’m gonna tell you how this led to BRUTAL TRUTH becoming active again.

“A couple of members of the classic New Orleans sludgecore band EYEHATEGOD lost everything they owned as well as their homes in the hurricane. The band has reached out to the scene and asked if there was any way that some bands could cover EHG songs for a benefit album to help these guys get back on their feet again. They also made a special request to see if there was any way in hell that BRUTAL TRUTH, who’ve been disbanded since 1998, could somehow reunite to contribute a song, since that would certainly provoke some extra interest in the album.

“So, for a damn good reason, BRUTAL TRUTH has recorded a version of the EHG song ‘Sister Fucker’. The original song appears on the ‘Take As Needed For Pain’ album and is split into two parts, which we recorded as one long song. It was just a matter of Gurn [guitarist Brent McCarthy] and Rich [Hoak, drums] coming up here to Rochester where our friends in SULACO graciously consented to letting us borrow their jam room for the purpose of learning, rehearsing and recording the song. A friend of Rich’s came up with him and recorded it, it was then sent to Kevin [Sharp, vocals] out in Chicago where he tracked his vocals and mixed it, and it will soon appear on the album that will be released on Emetic Records. And in case you’re wondering, yes, it’s faster than the original!

“Now, I suppose by now some of you might be saying, ‘Well? Is that it? You guys planning any shows?’ Well, since we all live in different cities now, and we went to the trouble to get together to learn a fairly easy song, we kinda shrugged and said ‘Let’s see if we can play any of our shit!’ Weed was smoked. And it appears that we still have that chemistry that made us what we were, so although there are no confirmed shows at the moment, I will say that it is certainly in the realm of possibility that there will be at least one live show, and what happens then remains to be seen. Meanwhile, here is an incomplete list of bands appearing on the comp, and I’ll keep you guys informed on whatever happens next.”

I got really excited by this piece of news. I’ve liked Brutal Truth for a long time. I got a copy of Extreme Conditions Demand Extreme Responses at a used store when I was in high school and followed them until they broke up. I would go through their history, but chances are the 6 of you that read this site either know or don’t care. I’m going to appreciate this recent development by posting a few of my favorite tracks from their first 3 albums instead.

Brutal Truth – Walking Corpse from the album, Extreme Conditions Demand Extreme Responses [MP3]
Brutal Truth – Turn Face from the album, Need To Control [MP3]
Brutal Truth – Displacement also from Need To Control [MP3]
Brutal Truth – The Blind Leading The Blind from the album, Kill Trend Suicide [MP3]

You can get all their discs off Amazon for some pretty decent prices, but chances are that if you like Brutal Truth, you’ve had them for years now. Check it out here.

Other News…

I lied about not waiting tables anymore. I landed a job at a place called Great Sage. It’s an all Vegetarian/Vegan organic restaurant that flat out rules. I just started and I already really like it, which isn’t normal for me. We’ll see what happens.

People still care about who wins American Idol? I guess that I’m out of the loop with this one.

Life’s too complicated…

Season To Risk were one of the first heavy bands to emerge from Kansas. Gaining notoriety by releasing a seven inch featuring artwork by serial murderer John Wayne Gacy, they landed a deal with Columbia Records through indie label Red Decibel.

Their self titled debut was a loud album calling upon the ghost of the much copied, never duplicated Dazzling Killmen. Featuring some of the smoothest basslines laid to tape, jarring guitars and some ass backwards drumming with a distinct voice propelled by what sounds like a megaphone with eerie melodies thrown in for good measure. The song Snakes is an ode to one of my favorite books of all time, A Feast Of Snakes written by the amazing Harry Crews.

The follow up to that album, In A Perfect World was a much dirtier and meatier beast. Calling on the entire Amphetmine Reptile back catalog, it was a more sinister album that had the same dead city lyrics only more twisted and extremely nihilistic. It also featured artwork by Derek Hess before every band in the free world jumped that bandwagon.

After the release of that album, there were major shake ups at Columbia Records with all the major labels merging and much like a lot of the smaller bands from that era, they found themselves in limbo and ultimately were dropped. Not ones to take it lightly, they built their own studio and released Men Are Monkeys, Robots Win. Personally, I found this album to be thin and forgettable.

A label called Owned & Operated purchased the rights to their old material and released the first two albums with a few bonus tracks. It included their seven inch releases, including an unlikely split seven inch with Starkweather and the song they performed in the movie, Strange Days.

Their last release, The Shattering was a slight return to form and wasn’t that bad. I own it, but find myself reaching for their earlier material to listen to if I get in the mood for their stuff.

I suppose they play shows here and there, but since they don’t have a website anymore I don’t keep up on them. It’s unfortunate because I never got to see them live. There were a myriad of other projects, but none seemed to really go anywhere and I don’t have any references for that so fuck it, here’s some MP3’s for you to listen to.

Season To Risk – Home from their self titled album. [MP3]

Season To Risk – Snakes from their self titled album. [MP3]

Season To Risk – Bloodugly from the album, In A Perfect World [MP3]

You can find all their CD releases at Amazon for dirt fuckin’ cheap. Check it.

Other news…

I’m working on getting the archives working. I’m still retarded with how Blogger works with my domain. I’ll get it done this week at some point. My bad.

I’m watching Supergroup on VH1 and the more I watch it, the more I hate Ted Nugent and his retarded fucking Conservative bullshit rhetoric. I read an interview where he trashed Dimebag because of his lifestyle. I hate when people preach about how their lifestyle is the only way to live. Fuck him. Sebastian Bach is one of the most rock and roll dudes of all time. Slave To The Grind is one of the finest metal songs of all time and fuck you if you don’t think so.

Emo before it had a term….

Baltimore’s Blank was a band that was doing a certain style before it even had a name. Some of it was considered pop-punk, some of it could’ve been called screamo (no, not like that piece of shit band The Used) or it could’ve just been called emo.

The thing is that they broke up in the mid 90’s before emo was really a term. Had they come around today, they would’ve been lumped into a category with a bunch of shitty bands that are absolutely horrible.

They always kept things interesting. Dualing guitars, great basswork and solid drumming, Blank were something special. From what I understand they were all either in high school or had just graduated when they should’ve broken big. Unfortunately, it wasn’t to be.

Check out the lyrics to their song, Guillotine Lullaby.

We’ve dealt with something colder. Goodbye Mr. Salesman. How does it work? And the tick tock on the hour, I know you’re not too loud and we’re all alone. Looks like we made a mess again. Looks like it’s not too clean. Because my hands are on my hand on your neck. Looks like we’re hiding. And they want to offer me something I’d never understand. And they want something that’s colder. I can’t give that. All I want, decision don’t matter or not to get you. And we fought so long. And something don’t matter to you. It’s taking a toll right over your faith, it’s taking something and we all understand. I know the walk, the way you walk. You’re tied or something. Justice will be served. I want to feel real, I want to be real, realer than. Justice will be off with his head. Your time, your time. It doesn’t get to you. Goodbye Mr. Salesman. This lullaby has to end. Did I say I was something that wasn’t real, realer than you? I want to be real, realer than you. I don’t know, but justice will be off with his head. Choke. You’ll choke on your words, choke on my tongue.

Simply great lyrical content. I can’t explain to you how many times I felt like the lyrics of this song.

I heard a few years ago that there was going to be a discography released. I think I was told that it was Deep Elm that was going to put it out, but after that I haven’t heard anything. It’s a shame too, this stuff is so good but due to either really shitty distribution or labels going out of business, their stuff is hard to come by.

You can find some of their releases at Reptilian Records. One of the best record stores on the east coast.

As far as the members of the band, Ryan went onto be in Cross My Heart who were fucking amazing and I almost did the write up on them instead of Blank. Maybe another day.He also went on to start Dead Red Sea & Liars Academy. Kerry and Lee started The Future Perfect. All of these bands are now defunct.

If anyone reads this and has any information, get in touch with me.

Blank – Guillotine Lullaby from the Piotrville 7″ [MP3]
Blank – The Race from the ep, The Race. [MP3]
Blank – The Fucking Truth from the Many Will Play 7″ [MP3]

EDIT!

I was fucking around with Google and looked up Ryan Shelkett and found that he has a new band called Midnight Revival. Sounds like some decent rock n’ roll. You can hear some songs on their myspace profile.

Other stuff…

I did a review of the new Misery Index album on Stereokiller.com. You can read that right over here.

I’m out of the food service industry for good. I landed a new job today that’ll be enough money to survive and I won’t have to sell my soul (or shave ever again) in order to make decent bread. I’m hyped. It’ll give me a lot more free time to work on other things (like this stupid site. Haha.)

Straight Outta Discordia…

I remembered that a few years ago when I lived in Brooklyn I did a remix of NWA’s Straight Outta Compton because I got my hands on a copy of Sony’s Sound Forge program. I thought that it was pretty fucking hilarious so I posted it up on Stereokiller.com. I don’t have the original file because I don’t have that computer anymore but it was preserved due to the fact that stereokiller rules.

You can check that out here.

In other news, I am convinced that the area that I live in is totally against any sort of heavy music at all. When Starkweather’s new album came out, I went to every record store (yes, I call them record stores because I remember when they sold records. I am old.) in this county and nothing. I couldn’t find it. I bought it at a Tower Records in D.C. Today, I went to all the same stores to get the new Misery Index album. What happened? None of them had it either. I figured that I stood a better chance because it’s on Relapse and Best Buy practically blows a load over Relapse since Mastodon and The Dillinger Escape Plan did so well. What kind of shit is that? Howard County in Maryland is one of the most deprived areas I’ve ever been in. I grew up around here and only remember shows happening at the very short lived and sorely missed Sound Exchange. Other than that, nothing. Nada. Zip. Sure, Baltimore gets good shows but since I haven’t owned a car in a few years, it’s impossible to get down there due to there being jackshit in the way of public transportation.

Wow, I’m complaining too much lately. I’m going to knock that off because there’s a lot of positive stuff happening in my life and I don’t want to come off as the normal cynical prick that I usually come off as.

Crisis of convictions and this site…

I’m back from my trip for training with my new job. At first I thought it’d be cool, lot’s of money, less bullshit than my last job but there’s a pretty sour taste in my mouth and I’m not really having an easy time getting it out.

I’m not preachy when it comes to my vegetarianism. Hell, when people offer me meat, I just politely decline because I don’t feel like running the gamut of questions that I usually get like “how can you be vegetarian when meat tastes so good?” I have a simple answer for that, it doesn’t appeal to me one fucking bit. If I start preaching then someone will think I’m one of those “PETA nutjobs” which I can safely say that I’m not. I hardly keep up with PETA. I think they do some really good stuff but they also tend to make asses out of themselves. Asking a town to change it’s name because it’s called Hamburg is a little ridiculous.

My crisis is this, the new place is heavily based in meat. I’ve worked in tons of restaurants and it was no big deal to be a vegetarian. I can bullshit my way through a menu. Since most of my job is bullshitting and/or flat out lying, I’m set. The difference between this job and other jobs is that they didn’t try to compromise my values in order to sell a product like this one heavily implied I should. Essentially, I was told that I cannot sell the product without trying it. I explained to them my situation and the trainer understood, but tried to sway me anyway. It definitely made me feel like they were force feeding me their values, which is something that I absolutely detest when someone does it to me. Take some people of religion, I’m not a religious person at all. I only pray when my life is in danger or I can’t get it up. Other those instances, I could careless. The other night, my mother, sister and I were out shopping and there were a bunch of people outside the store with a megaphone yapping about Jesus saving us all, etc. Their children were handing out pamphlets about salvation. I brushed by them without giving them an opportunity to engage me in a discussion because I don’t want to be like “Oh, I’m an Atheist” and then having them try to rationalize my thinking and ultimately try to belittle me because I think a different way. I don’t do it to them. I only ask the same respect.

Which leads me to this decision I need to make. Do I go back into the restaurant and try to explain to them and feel like I’m wasting my breath or do I go into a new place and work without having them try to conflict my values? I’m torn.

Aside from all that, I have some great shit cooking up for the site. I’m working on a new installment called In Their Own Words… where I get a someone from a band to pick out a few songs in their personal discography and explain the song and go into detail about it. I’ll post the mp3’s and there will be insight into their creative output. I’m hoping that it catches on. Look for the first installment in the coming weeks.

I also did a few reviews the other night on stereokiller.com.

Here are the links…

Lifetime – Somewhere In The Swamps Of Jersey.
Scissorfight – Jaggernaut.
None More Black – This Is Satire.
Job For A Cowboy – Doom.
Starkweather – Croatoan.

With the exception of Job For A Cowboy, I managed to get a decent batch of stuff in this time around. Tomorrow I’ll be doing a review for the new Misery Index disc, granted that I can find it in the suburban sprawl that I live in now.

Oh yea, if you’re into the Myspace thing, I made a page for the site. You can add us through this link.

Also, if you think Henry Rollins ruined Black Flag, eat a dick. Straight up.

Life in a Kentuck Crank Lab

I’ve uploaded a video onto the site for the Pennsylvania based band, Homewrecker. They’re pretty good stuff. You can check that out right here.

Other than that, things are pretty quiet. I’m going to be out of town for the next few days training for my new job. I’m really glad about that because my old job was a piece of shit and I’m glad to be gone.

I managed to pick up some stuff that I had lost when CD collection got nabbed. I grabbed a copy of the new Raised Fist album, Sound Of The Republic. You can read a full review I wrote of it on Stereokiller.com. You definitely should buy this album when it comes out. It delivers in so many ways.

I’ve really been pondering the future of this site and what I want to do with it. I’ve been very lazy when it comes to updating and whatnot, which is my own fault but at the same time, I try getting the word out and it seems like I get no feedback from it whatsoever. It’s disheartening when I open my email box and see that no one that comes on here leaves a comment or anything. I know that it’s a relatively new site, but I do a bit to try and get the word out, yet to no avail at all. I’m probably just in a mood where I don’t feel like it’s going anywhere and something will happen and that will change.

If you like what I’m doing here, please spread the word and I’ll do the same for you. It’s what this whole thing is about anyway, isn’t it?

In Gavin We Trust…

Die 116 was one of those bands that you heard of, but never saw live or knew they had albums out and I don’t know why. Boasting a line up that was something of legend. Gavin Van Vlack of Burn, Andrew Gormley of Rorshach then Kiss It Goodbye and Playing Enemy, Manny Carrero of Glassjaw and the reunion of Burn. Falling heavily into the “Post Hardcore” category with a style that fit in perfectly with bands like Unsane, Season To Risk and a slew of others, they managed to never make it big and it’s unfortunate, their 1995 release, Dyna-cool was a great album that a good friend of mine turned me onto since he knew my fascination with all things Burn related.

After one full length and an ep, the band called it quits and never returned. It’s a shame too because given the right crowd, they could’ve been fucking massive.

After doing a little searching around, you can get Dyna-cool for a fuckin’ penny. That’s right, you’d be paying 400% more for shipping. Do yourself a favor and pick this up and see what made them stick out from other bands.

@ Amazon.com

Edit: 5/19/05

It was brought to my attention that the link on here was dead, so I ripped the track again. This time it is in MP3 format.

Drunk Tank by Die 116 from the album, Dyna-Cool [MP3]

Where it all happens…

Yep, this is where hostagecalm.com happens.

No, I’m not squatting. I just haven’t bought a computer desk yet. Once I do, I’ll update with a pic of a desk with my old ass Apple iMac G3.

I’m working on the update I promised yesterday. It’s a little slowing going because I’m lazy and I’ve been watching True Hollywood Stories on VH1 all day.